2019-02-28-RB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the February 28, 2019 Retirement Board meeting: Present: Bob Cunha, Joe Foley, Fred Weiss, Carolyn Kosnoff, Marguerite Oliva&Jim Condon Absent: Alan Fields NEW MEMBERS: (10) Katherine Sampson, Milton Link, Peter Hines, Melissa Hanson-Gutierrez, Quynn Kiers, Amy Flanagan; Instructional Assts.; Janice Curran, Secretary; Timothy Stahl, Maximilian Keefe, James Melo, Firefighters; RETIREMENTS: Thomas Kasey, Mechanic, 4/18/19 DEATHS: (2) Laura Ferraguto, School Dept. Cook, 12/11/18,Priscilla Troy, Aide, 2/14/19 The Board accepted the 022819 Warrant and the February 2019 payroll. The January 2019 minutes were reviewed and approved, as well as the cashbooks for December 2018. Bob Cunha reviewed the February agenda with the Board members and staff. It was noted we received distributions from Monroe and Golub, as well as the 3rd Quarter FY 2019 appropriation from the town. The Board members took time to rank Dahab, Fiduciary Investment Advisors, and Vanguard as part of PERAC's compliance process for their Investment Consultant procurement. The ranking sheet required a scoring system from one (1) to four(4). Four being highly advantageous, three as advantageous, two as not advantageous, and one as unacceptable. The Meketa ranking sheet had already been completed prior to meeting. Bob noted that Meketa's pricing was very fair compared to the other consultants. Meketa, located in Westwood, also services other Retirement Board clients in MA. The Board is extremely comfortable with the communication and services it receives from this consulting group. A level of confidence and trust in Meketa has been at the forefront of this business partnership since inception. Bob Cunha made a motion to retain Meketa Investment Group as our Investment Consultant for the next seven(7)years,which was seconded by Joe Foley, and approved by Fred Weiss. A second motion was made by Bob to approve the Cost of Living Adjustment for retirees. The motion for a 3%increase on the first$14,000.00 was seconded by Joe, and unanimously approve by Fred and Carolyn. Each Board member was advised of their duty to fulfill Board Training credits within the next 12 months. Course credits can be viewed on the PERAC website by going into PROSPER. Henry Juang and Steve McLennan presented the Meketa update. The portfolio balance as of January 31, 2019 was $166,433,470.00,up 5.9% for the year. The balance is up $8.5m from the December 31, 2018 year end close. Several factors include our asset allocation. Acadian and Matthews Pacific Tiger allocation performed well in January in International equity. Russell, Fidelity and KAR did well on the Domestic equity side. Henry spoke of the portfolio's weak finish in 2018. Despite being down 8.4% for the final quarter of 2018, all the proper selections were in place. It was just a rough market to weather the storm globally. Heading into March 2019, the portfolio is up 6% YTD. It appears the Federal Reserve will be backing off any interest rate hikes or cuts. And with no real inflation, there would be no need to adjust the rate. He then spoke briefly about our expected returns for 2019. The mark has been set at 8%. It is a bit high, but until the final numbers are in for 2018, it could lower to 7.2%—7.5%.